IDRC at the World One Health Congress 2024 in South Africa
Over the last few decades, the magnitude and frequency of epidemics and pandemics around the world has increased, causing significant loss of lives and livelihoods, ravaging economies and health-care systems, and disrupting regional and global health security. Small- and large-scale infectious disease outbreaks have had devastating impacts, particularly for women, children and other vulnerable and marginalized groups. They have also deepened and exacerbated the existing social and economic inequalities that these groups already face, rolling back decades of progress.
Within this context, and on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, IDRC launched the Collaborative One Health Research Initiative on Epidemics (COHRIE) in 2021. The ‘One Health’ approach aims to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. Supporting research activities across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, COHRIE comprises four projects being implemented in nine countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
These IDRC-funded projects are utilizing the One Health approach for epidemic prevention and response by applying an intersectoral, multidisciplinary and systems-based approach to research, policy and actions around situations where humans, animals and the environment intersect. The projects aim to identify and implement potential innovations in policies and programs to assist countries to better prevent, prepare and respond to emerging infections and epidemics.
This crucial work will be showcased at the World One Health Congress (WOHC), which is the world’s largest forum dedicated to advancing the One Health approach, convening every two years. The aim of WOHC is to connect the dots between One Health science and policy, while promoting a cross-sectoral and collaborative approach to improve the health and wellbeing of humans, animals and their environments. This year’s WOHC is anticipated to be the largest gathering of the congress to date, providing an excellent opportunity to reflect on global One Health science and policy.
During the WOHC, IDRC is hosting a panel session in the Science Policy Interface track, entitled “IDRC's Collaborative One Health Research Initiative on Epidemics: How countries in Africa and Latin America are responding to infectious diseases using coordinated One Health approaches.” During this panel session, IDRC will bring together research scientists from each of the four projects to present key findings from their work over the past three years. The knowledge presented in the session will be of interest to a wide range of conference participants, including researchers, One Health practitioners, decision-makers and civil society representatives.
Date and time: September 21, 2024, 4:40-5:30 p.m. SAST
Location: The Cape Town International Convention Centre, Meeting room 1.61-1.64
In addition to the panel session, COHRIE project team members have had an impressive number of abstracts accepted for the WOHC, including over 15 posters on their IDRC-funded work. Find out more in the WOHC schedule.
Read more about the COHRIE projects: